Tips For Managing Remote Teams You Need to Know

November 01, 2017

Today we are talking about three new tips to manage remote teams. The truth is remote teams have been around for a long time but we are constantly looking for ways to manage those teams more effectively.

Let’s take a look at what some of the remote teams may look like. So you as a project manager may be on site with a few team members. But you may also have some of your vendor partners, different location, you may have your sales teams, product development teams co-located together or even different areas. As you can see the distribution of those team members, you want to think ways to have them collaborate more effectively.

There are some potential issues that happen with remote team members. Sometimes it could be just due to set up some of the team members don’t feel part of the team, because the meetings we may be having, calls or doing things by email and so on. It makes people feel disengaged, they pull back some and they don’t contribute. When team members don’t contribute, they sit there and wait for the project manager or other managers to provide instructions on what to do. Therefore such people feel like their work is being directive and at that point, they don’t buy in. The net is you’re missing valuable insights from those team members and more importantly their input.

The three new tips are the old adage goes that nothing can replace face-to-face. That is true for projects as well. So we literally go back to the drawing board with something as a whiteboard. If you use whiteboards and then add in the video conferencing that is so easy to do today with zoom or GoToWebinar. There are other tools that allow such way as well, but we want to move from the one-way communication our directives to more of a two-way collaboration. By being able to add the face-to-face component in, really helps people feel more engaged give them the safety and security to contribute.

We also want to force in some in-person summits. Some people say, that they cannot do this task because they don’t have the money or they don’t have the time. So you as a project manager that is one important part you have to incorporate into, not only your budget but into your schedule. Block off certain times, not just in the planning phase but all throughout the project. That way gets back to providing the opportunity for the other team members to fill a part to contribute. You can get their insights and their input.

If you need a tool that can help you manage remote teams, we collect most useful of them.

Trello
The system of managing Tasks. Also, we tried Jira, but it didn’t settle in. Trello is based on Kanban methodology, providing moving tasks from one column to another. This is useful and easy understanding.

Cloud9
Cloud9 is an alternative to sending iteration of your code to parsing. The service displays the changes in IDE in real time. You can enter at any time, click "Preview" and see what your co-workers did in the code.

Basecamp
You need to have a central hub to collect all the files, even if you do not plan to work with them together. For example, we can put the files in the Dropbox folder, they are transferred via Zapier to Basecamp. If something breaks down during developer’s absence, the desired file can be easily found in Basecamp and correct the errors.

Slack.
If someone else does not know, Slack is a fun service for communication with the team. It is especially useful for remote developers.

GitHub.
This is a product for web developers, that they definitely love. It is designed to create software with remote teams. There is code commenting and management by means open source and private repositories.

GoToMeeting
Very convenient tool for conducting online meetings with customers or with their team. To use GoToMeeting is very simple: click on a link on a computer, laptop or phone, then you are at a meeting, with the ability to share a screen, make notes on images, record a conversation.

Google Hangouts. A lot of people already use Hangouts because of its versatility and availability. The folk wisdom is to use it with Google Calendar.

Anything you can do to create a feeling that they are not just working separately but are truly part of your company and part of a team is worthwhile.